We’ll go over the basics first. 24: The Game is set between seasons two and three and will feature characters from seasons like Tony Almeida, Jack Bauer and Kim Bauer. All characters are voiced by the actors who play them on the TV screen and the storyline has been penned by the writer of the show. There are over 100 missions and quite obviously the game is set to last for about 24 hours. Whilst the game primarily takes place from a third person perspective, there is plenty of variety in the missions which means that you won’t always be taking control of Jack Bauer, although the majority of gameplay takes place as Jack, there are a few surprise playable characters including Chase Edmunds.
Explosion goes here
The build we went hands on with actually allowed us to start from the very beginning of the game. From the main menu it’s possible to view replays of previous missions and replay any mission that you’ve already completed. PAL gamers can rejoice because the game includes full 60Hz support.
Even though the game had some missions already complete for us we decided to start a new game because we all know what it is like to miss a few episodes of the show and not know what is happening. The first screen to grab your attention is “The following takes place between 6:00am and 7:00am”. An in-game cut-scene is played and even though it looks impressive, the lip movements are a little out of synch which hurts the game's atmosphere.
As soon as the first mission begins, you take control of Jack and the game actually tells you where to go and what your objective is. You can bring up your objectives at any stage by pressing select. There is a map that is located on the bottom right of the screen and the first level basically serves as a tutorial. Jack has a wide variety of moves and he can hide behind door frames or solid objects by pressing X. He can also climb and do a barrel roll. Firing is done with the R1 button but you can use L1 to aim and the game will lock onto an opponant. It’s relatively simple to change which opponent you are aiming at by just using the analogue stick on the controller. Sometimes the aiming crosshair doesn’t lock on soon enough which can mean you are often just shooting and hoping the crosshair will lock on, which is a little frustrating.
Thankfully, Jack is simple to control and throughout the mission a clock will occasionally flash on screen so you don’t lose track of the time, the traditional dramatic music that accompanies the clock also plays which makes the game feel remarkably similar to the television show.
Isn't he heroic?
Aside from the first level we also got the opportunity to play through a bomb defusing scenario, which initially seemed confusing but began to make a lot more sense the second time around. It really does feel like 24: The Game is going to have enough different gameplay options to prevent the game from feeling repetitive as other sequences include driving stages and torture challenges.
The game does have a few issues that we hope are ironed out in the final version though. The camera can often get in the way of the game, which can make it very difficult to keep control of where you are, this also makes it difficult to aim. The game is also relatively linear as well, it seems that no matter what level you do there is basically only one way to go. You can make a few moral decisions (like whether to take pity on a hostile or whether to shoot them) but this rarely makes much difference to the outcome of the mission. The artificial intelligence that accompany you on some of the missions also get in the way and often they actually hinder you, rather than help you.
Despite the fact that the game still has a few problems, 24: The Game is very impressive. There is a lot of variety in the missions and the game manages to feel exactly like the television show, which is no easy task. If the final build of the game offers enough variety and fixes the camera issues then 24: The Game could actually be as enjoyable as the television show.
Loading...
